The 31st Annual Meeting of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, between September 2 and 6, 2009. The theme for the conference is: "Engineering the Future of Biomedicine". The intended emphasis is on the translation of bioengineering approaches to the practice of medicine and healthcare. The General Conference Chair is Dr. Bin He, the Co-general Conference Chair is Dr. Yongmin Kim, the Scientific Program Chair is Dr. Xiaochuan Pan, and the Scientific Program Co-chair is Dr. Gregory Worrell, respectively. The intended audience for the conference is very diverse, encompassing broad variation in thematic areas and expertise (including engineers, scientists, medical researchers, practitioners, educators, and students). Thematic areas include all of biomedical engineering diverse fields, among which traditional ones, such as signal processing, neural engineering and image processing, coexist together with emerging areas such as tissue engineering and technology commercialization. Interdisciplinary research is very much at the forefront of bioengineering, and the composition of the conference attendees will reflect this. The scientific program of the conference is articulated among oral scientific sessions, poster sessions and invited mini-symposia. Contributed oral and poster presentations are refereed and included in the PubMed searchable database, in addition to being published in the conference proceedings. The specific aim of this R13 proposal is to seek registration and travel funds to increase the participation of junior scientists (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty) to the scientific activities of the conference. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE STATEMENT (provided by applicant): This R13 proposal seeks registration and travel funds from NIH to increase the participation of junior scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, to the scientific activities of the 31st Annual Meeting of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Biomedical engineering is currently the fastest growing area in academic and applied engineering, and there is a strong need for state of the art training. The intent of this grant is to broaden the participation of junior scientists in scientific activities of this leading international conference on biomedical engineering.